


The Day the World Changed

by panaceaa



Category: South Park
Genre: Kenny thinks it's okay to change that, Kyle is Mysterion's informant and never met Kenny, M/M, well at least for a day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-14 04:36:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14762708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panaceaa/pseuds/panaceaa
Summary: It's Kyle's birthday and Mysterion sends him on a mission around town. He finds Kenny along the way.





	The Day the World Changed

From the inside of Kyle’s apartment he can see the rooftop of the neighboring building.

It’s a bit lower than his widow, giving him a full view of its shape. Flat, with a door leading up to it for maintenance workers or people who wandered up there to escape life and pretend, even if only for a moment, that they’re bigger than they are. Finding themselves looking down upon the prospectively small streets and feeling just a bit more like things in the real word didn’t really matter.

It was a mirror of the rooftop of his own apartment. And he knows that the neighboring rooftop is a structure that is usually absent of movement, especially once the sun goes down and the stars light up the blanket of darkness surrounding the world.

That doesn’t stop Kyle from watching it sometimes. Staring out at it from his bedroom window, waiting for the sign that his night’s about to get a lot more interesting.

Blink, and he might miss it.

On this particular night, he does.

There is suddenly a shadow of a man blocking his sight to the outside world. Face obstructed by his mask and the shadow of his hood, yet his blue eyes shining with their own special luminescence.

Kyle’s heart skips a beat.

“Kyle,” he addresses him, the name sliding off his tongue in his normal gruff tone. He steps in the window, the one Kyle always leaves open nowadays, and turns to shut it behind him, drawing the curtains tightly closed. The world outside completely blocked from vision, hell, maybe it doesn’t exist at all. No one can know the one place that the enigmatical vigilante frequents. The one person in the city that he seems to trust.

No one can know exactly who his informant is.

“Mysterion,” Kyle addresses back to him. Unnecessary, but it’s how these meetings usually start.

Mysterion slightly inclines his head and when he moves he seems to glide around the room in the dim lighting of Kyle’s apartment. A walking shadow taken the form of a man. He settles down in his usual spot, the chair across from Kyle’s favorite seat. A table that usually housed reports and Kyle’s laptop now currently standing with its empty surface filling the distance between them, devoid of all things with the exception of Kyle’s half filled coffee mug.

“Why didn’t you tell me that tomorrow is your birthday?”

Kyle is taken aback for a moment, certainly not expecting those words to come out of the vigilante's lips. In truth, Kyle himself had almost forgotten. A fleeting thought crosses his mind on the subject of how exactly Mysterion had discovered that information, but he figured he had his ways. Not like he would answer him if he were to ask anyway.

With a small shrug, Kyle settles on telling the truth. “I didn’t think it was important.”

Mysterion gives him a long look. Luminescent blue eyes. Obstructed features. He’d known him for a while now, and still Kyle had not a clue how to tell what he was thinking.

“Are you going anywhere?”

Kyle is surprised by his question once again. Apparently he wasn’t dropping it. Why did he think this was so important? He usually never took an interest in Kyle’s personal life, never asked questions like these. Was always professional. Why the change now?

With a shake of his head, Kyle gives him his answer. “I’ll probably just stay in, as usual. Watch some movies, relax a little.”

“That’s all?” The words seem soft somehow, a tone a shade more gentle from his usual gruffness. It’s probably just Kyle’s imagination.

“Yeah, what else would I do?”

“Don’t you have friends?” Mysterion seems to say the words without thinking, and there’s an indisputable stiffness that lines his shoulders after he speaks.

Still, Kyle isn’t really insulted. It’s a fair enough question.

“My best friend, Stan, he moved back to his hometown with his girlfriend.”

His list stops there. He wonders if Mysterion realizes that his answer is not shorter by choice of omission.

Mysterion slowly nods, a movement that only comes after a hefty length of silence between them. Then without another word he stands and turns as if to leave. Movements not as fluid as they usually were as if he was distracted. Lost somewhere within his own head.

Kyle doesn't know quite what to make of it.

“Wait that’s it?” He says, standing as well but not moving towards the figure retreating towards his window. “You’re leaving already? That’s all you had to ask?”

Mysterion’s gloved hand pauses on the edge of the window, having already opened it back up. A breeze blows in from the outside, fluttering his cape and drawing attention to the statuesque nature of his body.

“Keep your phone close by tomorrow,” He says eventually, gaze trained on something on the ground below that Kyle isn’t close enough to see. “Since I know you won’t be busy, you can help me out with something.”

And with that, he finally goes through the window and vanishes into the night.

***

The next day Kyle is woken up by the obnoxious ringtone he has set on the disposable phone he’d been told to keep with him at all times. It was Saturday, so he’d been hoping he could sleep in, but apparently Mysterion had other plans for him. With bleary eyes, he sits up in his bed and reaches over to grab the object, flipping it open to reveal one of the strangest text messages he’s ever received.

“What the hell?”

It’s an amalgam of words and letters, arranged with weird spacing and the occasional comma. He stares at it for a moment, thinking that Mysterion had somehow managed to butt text him with a flip phone, as illogical as that was, but he knew Mysterion never made mistakes. And he had told him he’d be messaging him today. Kyle just had to figure out...what exactly he was messaging him.

Luckily, Kyle fucking loved puzzles. Oh, he’d figure the shit out of this.

With a smirk, Kyle hops out of bed and over to his desk, grabbing some notebook paper and a pen. Then he sets to work.

Not twenty minutes later, he has the cipher completely decrypted.

“Ha!” He says with a self satisfied grin, mentally patting himself on the back.

Using the cipher he translates the message, looking in clear bafflement at the text in a way he hadn’t even when it was amalgamated gibberish.

‘Go to the coffee shop down the street. Order a drink and sit and wait for the next clue.’

What even was this? A test of patience? He was supposed to just order a coffee and wait?

Kyle runs his hand through his hair and sighs.

Well if it was a test, then Kyle was going to get an damn A.

He always did.

***

He orders a drink at the coffee shop from an excessively twitchy barista. He’s told to sit while it gets made, and so he does. Finding a seat in the back corner of the coffee shop, taking in the decor and atmosphere of a place he’d frequently passed by, but had never really visited. He might have once, a long time ago. It was hard to even remember the last time he’d been to a coffee shop. It was probably with Stan....When was the last time he had even seen Stan in person?

Must have been years.

“You look like you could use some company.”

Kyle’s distracted from his thoughts by the sound of an unfamiliar voice, and the moment he looks up his world stops.

The guy standing in front of his table might just be the most beautiful person he’s ever seen. Blond hair tinged with gold, framing the shape of his face like a halo. Fluorescent lights bouncing off him and radiating an almost ethereal glow.

And his eyes.

Holy shit, his eyes.

But as Kyle’s lost staring, he notices that there’s also something almost lonely about him. The way he seems somewhat lost within the fabric of his own clothes, orange hoodie almost swallowing his small form. The type of person you could be sharing a room with and until he spoke you’d never even know he was there.

Yet, he decided to speak to Kyle.

He wonders why that is.

Mere chance? Or maybe he noticed that he too looked a little lost.

“Who are you?” When he finally manages to speak Kyle’s voice comes out breathless, which he’s not at all proud of. But he can’t help it.

The blond smiles, a sideways little tilt of the lips.

“I’m Kenny.”

Kenny.

It’s a nice name, Kyle immediately thinks. Fits him.

“I’m Kyle.”

Kenny nods and gestures to the seat across from him, sitting only when Kyle offers his approval. Kyle notices that the doesn’t have a drink with him, but chooses not to comment on it.

“So,” Kenny says, leaning forward in his chair with a grin, “you come here often?”

Kyle snorts. “That supposed to be a pick up line?”

“Could be. Could also just be a question,” he winks, easy in a way Kyle has never seen someone manage to pull off before. “I’ll let you decide.”

Kyle is impressed by the easy flow the blond in front of his seems to follow, an easygoing symphony of words and movement. Weren’t conversations with strangers supposed to be harder? Start off slower? Yet Kyle could already feel his walls cracking, relaxing with an easy smile of his own. One he’d kind of forgotten he had.

“No, I don’t,” he admits, “I usually make my coffee at home in the morning before work.”

“Where do you work?”

“I’m a journalist. I write articles for the paper.”

“Oh, nice,” Kenny sits up a bit straighter, excitement lining his features. “I bet you come across all types of interesting things with a job like that.”

“It...” Kyle pauses, looking down at the table searching for words with a fond little smile, “has taken me to strange places.”

Kenny’s eyes light up, something almost knowing hidden within the sparkling blue.

“I’m sure it has.”

Just then, Kyle’s coffee gets delivered at his table by the same twitchy barista who had waited on him. Before he can even thank him, the words get caught on the tip of his tongue by the sight of the cup being placed in front of him. Written on the side of it, in place of a name, was a series of numbers.

Kyle looks back up in question, but the barista is already across the room. Damn that guy moved fast.

Digging into his pocket, Kyle digs out his notebook and starts matching up numbers with letters.

“What’d that guy give you his number or something?” Kenny asks suddenly.

Kyle looks back up at him, bothered by his words for some reason. He’s not exactly sure why he doesn’t want Kenny to think he’s interested in writing down some other guy’s number, but he quickly corrects him.

“I’m going on...something of a scavenger hunt around town today,” he admits, probably against his better judgement. “A friend of mine set it up, for uh, my birthday.”

“Oh, that sounds nice.”

Kyle nods and looks back down at his puzzle. This one was simple. No specifics, just two hidden words. It doesn’t take him long at all to figure it out, and when he does his nose scrunches up in distaste.

He had to be joking, right?

“You figure it out?” Kenny asks, probably reading his expression.

“Obviously.” Kyle says the word without thinking, before he realizes like what an asshole he undoubtedly sounds like. “Shit, sorry-”

“Nah,” Kenny giggles, not looking the least bit offended. “I like it. Confidence is fucking hot, dude.”

Kyle doesn’t really know how to respond to that, because he’s pretty sure the most beautiful person he ever met just called him hot and none of his exams ever prepared him for this.

“I…um, thank you?”

Nailed it.

Granted, Kyle had always been a more fan of the direct approach and wasn’t really that great at flirting. Obviously.

Fortunately, Kenny seemed to get a kick out of his response if his new cycle of laughter was to be any indication.

“Well,” Kenny says with a grin as he stands from the table, “as fun as this has been, I should probably get going. Places to be, and all that.” He gestures to the cup and notebook in front of Kyle, “You probably have to get back to your thing anyway.”

Kyle’s heart drops. Something like panic settling in for a reason he can’t quite discern.

“Do you really have to leave?” Kyle finds himself quickly asking, his brain to mouth filter not working very well.

Kenny pauses, giving him a long look as if he can’t quite figure him out. As if no one had really asked him a question like that before. “No, not really,” he says eventually, “why?”

Kyle can feel his face heating up, and is kind of horrified. He never blushed. Not in his life, and yet here he was. God, what was this boy doing to him? “Well like I said, I’m going on something of a scavenger hunt today, and well...I could use some company.”

Kenny blinks at him, like the words aren’t quite English. But Kyle can see a distinct shade of pink climbing up his cheeks and he feels a bit better about himself. “You want me to go with you?”

“Only if you want to.”

Momentary stupor finally seeming to come to an end, Kenny smiles at him, wide and true. “Yeah sure, dude. Sounds like fun.”

***

Kyle is grumbling to himself, not at all happy with where the clue had brought him. Mysterion was going to get a piece of his mind when he saw him again.

“A fucking strip club? Really?”

Kenny is trying to muffle his giggles from beside him and is failing miserably.

“You know,” he says through his laughter, “this was actually where I was headed.”

Kyle turns to him with a dead look in his eye.

“You’re joking.”

“Nope!” Kenny says immediately, offering a wide grin as well as a mischievous glimmer of his eyes. “Just imagine how great that would have been! You walk in and see me standing here, crossing paths twice in the same day. I’d walk up to you and say, ‘Wow, what are the chances? Must have been fate.’”

Kyle tries to keep his expression serious and disapproving, but he can’t help but laugh at the words paired with Kenny’s gleeful expression. He shakes his head, giving in and breaking out in a smile.

“That’s ridiculous.”

Kenny nudges his shoulder, peering up at him through blond eyelashes. “You’re telling me that you wouldn’t have been charmed?”

Kyle’s heart picks up its pace, a thrum he can feel throughout his body that sends a shiver straight to his toes.

This boy would be the death of him.

“Yes, because it’s a strip club,” Kyle attempts reasoning, playing off the too real effect Kenny is having on him, “not exactly the most charming environment.”

Kenny tilts his head slightly, a sly glint to his eyes.

“Did you want me to walk in again?”

Kyle can’t help the ugly laugh that comes out of him. “Oh my god.”

Kenny giggles in response, continuing to lead him through the building. The place is raunchy and makes Kyle feel dirty and like he needs to go home and delete his eyes from existing.

“What do you like so much about this place anyway?” He finds himself asking, nose curling up in disgust.

Kenny doesn’t seem to mind.

“It’s like a whole different world!” He says with a large grin, and throwing out an arm as if to gesture to the place as a whole. “The darkest parts of the city glowing under neon lights and it’s all completely legal!“ He winks, “Plus, titties.”

Kyle doesn’t really see the appeal in anything he just said, but he supposes that he understands. Well, everything but the last thing he said anyway.

“They really do it for you, huh?”

Kyle means it as a joke. Something that would get Kenny to laugh and say some dirty joke or crude remark that he seemed to love so much. He wasn’t expecting the calculating look he got in response, or the too quiet answer that only led to more questions.

“Yeah...they used to.”

Kyle wants to ask him what he means, but Kenny doesn’t look at him. Just picks up his pace as he pulls him through the building.

***

The next clue takes them to a little restaurant some ways downtown. It had been written on the napkin of a shot that Kenny had ordered for Kyle at the strip club’s bar. Kyle wasn’t normally one to drink, but really what would one shot hurt?

Apparently the answer to that was a lot. He swore his throat was still burning.

But Kenny’s unending giggles from beside him had made it worth it. It was certainly an experience, not one that he cared to repeat, but if there was anyone he could have experienced it with, he was glad it was Kenny. The guy seemed to have an act for making seemingly any situation enjoyable. As if he was a spark of color, lively and vibrant.

He’d never met anyone quite like him before.

They order lunch, and as they eat Kenny tells him about the place he grew up. In a strange turn of events, it’s revealed that he grew up in the same small town as Stan, although the two of them never really talked.

“I was a drifter,” he explains, something almost sad in his expression. “Knew a lot of people, but none of them really knew me.”

Kyle nods, he had Stan, sure. But he hadn’t met him until college. So, Kyle knew intrinsically well exactly what it felt like to be in a crowded room and still feel completely alone.

He wasn’t too good at getting to know people. Stan always said it was because he was too caught up in his own head all the time and although Kyle couldn’t exactly disagree with that he also couldn’t help but feel that it was something more. A lack of understanding maybe?

Something that would explain why he felt so connected to Kenny.

“This might be weird to say,” Kyle starts out slowly, preparing himself to finally say the words he’d been thinking about the entire day. Not sure when or if he’d ever get another chance, “But I feel like I know you...like I _have_ known you. Maybe even for my whole life,” he gives Kenny a smile. “It’s hard to believe we only just met earlier today.”

Kenny looks away from him, gaze training on the mostly empty plate in front of him. When he looks back up, Kyle swears his eyes are glistening.

“Maybe we did,” Kenny says softly, voice melancholy. “An alternate universe maybe. Where we grew up together as kids, as best friends.” The look in Kenny’s eyes grows somber. The upward tilt of his lips a relic for a world unlived, a possibility that the two of them will never get the chance to know. “Where life was simple, just us and the world.”

Kyle matches his smile. “Sounds impossible.”

“I’m sure stranger things have happened.”

Their eyes meet from across the table. The meeting of blue and green, of circumstance and familiarity that sinks deep into Kyle’s bones. Maybe even his soul.

The moment is broken by the waitress returning and placing a plate with a small cake and a single candle between them.

“Happy birthday, hun,” she says to Kyle before leaving the two alone once more.

Kyle looks back to Kenny in surprise only to see that his eyes have regained their sparkle.

“You said it was your birthday, right? Well, happy birthday!” Kenny leans a bit closer with a wink. “I tipped them off when you weren’t looking.”

Kyle looks down at the cake, feeling something in his chest tighten at the gesture.

“...Thank you.”

***

The last clue was found at the bottom of the check at the restaurant.

It stated its finality, and then pointed Kyle in the direction of trees and a bench he knew well from the days he would walk to work. A spot in the park. Undeniable.

And yet, the end of his search reveals nothing. Just the bench. Just the big overbearing tree. Just the sunset in the distance.

“I don’t understand,” Kyle says looking at the scene in perplexion, “there’s nothing here.”

Not like he had been expecting Mysterion, because the vigilante certainly never came out when it was still light out, but then where was the proof he had succeeded? What was the point of this? Was he just supposed to tell him that the last location was the park and then that was it? Pass the test and move on?

Somewhere within his thoughts he realizes that Kenny has been mysteriously silent. He turns to him in confusion. “Kenny?”

The blond doesn’t look at him. Instead he keeps his eyes trained on the setting sun, breeze ruffling his hair and with a defeated slope to his shoulders.

“You know,” Kenny says quietly, eventually breaking the silence without moving from his stance. “If this was a movie then this is the part where I run away, never to be seen again.”

Kyle’s heart drops at the words. The same panic he’d felt at the coffee shop returning full force.

But this time is different. Different for them both.

Kyle takes a step forward.

“Except that’s a lie.”

Kenny nods, dropping his head and looking towards the ground.

“You seem to like problem solving, right?” Kenny’s voice is barely over a whisper, quiet and fragile. Vulnerable. “Well, I have one last question for you. Who am I?”

Kyle doesn’t have to think long. Kenny’s words serving as a trigger for the one thing he’d perhaps known all along. Had known deep in the essence of his being, from the moment he looked up to see eyes that exact shade of blue.

He takes another step forward.

“I met a man on the rooftop of my apartment a few years ago,” Kyle’s voice is gentle, and the moment the words leave his lips Kenny’s head bows down even further. Appears even smaller. Kyle continues. “A real piece of work he was, thought he was some kind of symbol of justice,” he pauses, the memory of that night flashing through his mind. “He was about to jump. Stood there on the ledge, bruised and bleeding, and told me that it was the easiest way. Told me to just go home.” Kyle takes the final few steps between them, standing beside Kenny so that his shoulder brushed his. “Want to guess what happened next?”

Kenny peeks up at him, smiling through the tears lining his eyes.

“You stayed,” Kenny says, voice cracking. “Pulled him away from the edge and dragged him back to your place when he refused to go to a hospital. Healed him.”

Kyle nods, taking his hand.

“Said the next time he felt like being an idiot, to just come find me.”

Kenny looks down at their interconnected hands. “And he did,” he says softly.

Their eyes lock once more. “I’m glad you did,” Kyle tells him, connecting Mysterion and Kenny as one for the first time.

Kenny makes some kind of noise like a wounded animal, and turns his gaze back to the ground.

“Tell me, did you honestly have any idea it was me? Or did you just figure it out now?”

“I had my suspicions.” Kyle’s words are honest. “It was your eyes. The one part of yourself you couldn’t hide.”

Kenny smiles softly and squeezes his hand before letting go of it altogether. “Congratulations. Always knew you were smart.”

He turns to leave.

“So, that’s it, then?” Kyle says, causing Kenny to halt his steps. He looks down at his empty hand, suddenly far too cold. “Don’t I get a prize?”

Kenny looks at him, confusion lining the shape of his brow. “Huh?”

“My prize,” he reiterates. “I figured out every one of your riddles, even the last one, and it’s my birthday. Don’t I get something for my effort?”

Kenny seems to fumble for words, guilt seeping into his expression.

“I…don’t really have a lot of money. So, this was the best I could come up with,” he shrugs, smiling sheepishly. “Didn’t really think it’d end like this.”

Kyle looks at him. Bright and beautiful, yet with a secret side so vastly different. A boy who would come into his window under the shadow of darkness with stab wounds and a stiffened jaw, and yet also the boy who liked to giggle and secretly order him birthday cakes. Something of a paradox he was, and yet Kyle understood both sides. His heart beat for them both.

“Can I suggest something then?” Kyle asks, steeling his resolve.

Kenny seems a little confused, but he nods.

“Kiss me.”

Kenny’s eyes grow wide, and he flushes. “I...uh, why?”

Kyle can think of about ten million reasons why, starting with Mysterion and ending with Kenny. He decides not to voice them, not yet at least. There would be time for that later, he’d make sure of it.

“Because,” he says instead, “today’s my birthday and I want to.” He shrugs, “I like you, a lot.”

“Oh,” Kenny breathes with an overjoyed smile. “Why didn’t you just say so? Took you long enough, and here I was just going to walk away-”

Kyle cuts him off with his lips.

The kiss is slow, sweet, and perfect. The first time they break for air, Kenny grins against his lips, chests pounding in time with the other. “Happy birthday, Kyle,” he breathes before diving back in again.

It would be nighttime before they finally made their way back to Kyle’s apartment. And if there was one thing for certain, it was that it was by far the best birthday Kyle had ever had.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know how I manage to make even a birthday fic sad? I'm sorry?
> 
> PaisleyWraith drew not one, but /two/ pieces of art for this fic and they're absolutely stunning! Please go check them out if you haven't already!  
> https://panacea-for-all-evil.tumblr.com/search/TheWorldChangedfictag


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